Azure Cloud Shell Loading is delayed by around 20 minutes - azure

I am currently attempting to complete the AZ-204 training for the microsoft exam, however on multiple of the learning paths, when I go to load an azure cloud shell as part of the module, it can take upwards of 20 minutes to load.
black screen displayed by shell while loading
It will eventually complete, and allow access to the shell but it can be upwards of half an hour before it completes. Does anyone have any explanation for this? Does training accounts receive a lower priority? I'm fairly confident it cannot be a connection issue as I'm currently in a professional environment with a secure connection (as in I'm not working from home).
Thanks in advance for any help.

Not sure which browser you are seeing this issue with, but Azure Cloud Shell opening without bringing up the prompt is documented as a known issue in Edge and Safari. Chrome is recommended as the browser to be used for running Learn exercises for the best user experience.
If feasible, you can also consider running Microsoft Learn exercises in your own subscription, if you're still unable to use the Sandbox environment for some reason. (Note that if you use your own subscription, you will be charged for any active resources).
If the issue persists, you can report feedback at the bottom of each unit in a Learn module. This will allow you to send the teams communication about the content or Learn experience.

Related

How can I specify the memory for google cloud functions emulator?

Is there a way to specify the memory used by firebase functions when running locally through the emulator? I know it can be done in google cloud (which I have done and can see my functions are working) but im not able to see anything in the documentation and I suspect low mem is causing issues in performance when running locally.
It seems this is not publicly documented and we can assume that this is not currently possible. You can file a Feature Request in the Public Issue Tracker. With every feature request, the Engineering team has more visibility of your needs and they can work on them accordingly to the impact on the users. This is the importance to look first for an existing one. I have searched but not found any, so I think the best way to proceed in this case is to create a new one. Please as much details as possible about how would you like to work this feature and if you found any workaround, so, the community in the PIT can implement it.

Node.js - I need to know my resource usage before deploying to google cloud

EDIT: STILL NOT ANSWERED. I appreciate the advice I have received so far, but I still have not found a proper way to test the amount of resources my server is using. I decided to use GCE instead of GAE but I still want to measure the resource usage.
I have searched all over google as well as SA and can't seem to figure this one out.
I would like to deploy my (very small) node.js server to either Google App Engine or Google Compute Engine (not sure which to use yet).
I see that they charge based on how many resources you use, but how can I check this before I make my decision? Basically what I would like to do is find a way to analyse my server and see what CPU/DISK/NETWORK/RAM/Etc it uses, and then possibly make some refinements to my code to get the usage down as low as possible.
I am a hobbyist programmer and this server is just for personal stuff so I don't need anything fancy. I just want to get it hosted on google and not my home server. My real fear is that, since I am not a professional, my code might be doing some crazy background stuff repeatedly that would rack my usage up for nothing.
Quick rundown on what my server does:
Basic node.js express template that IntelliJ made me, then I added my code to sit and listen to a Firebase. When the firebase gets a message (once or twice a day maybe, text message equivalent size) the server sends a quick GCM/FCM message to a few devices. Extremely simple server, very little code. Nothing crazy.
As a little bonus for me, if you have a suggestion as to which platform I should use, I am all-ears.
If you do not need this server to run 24x7, use App Engine. It stops an instance if it is not being used for 15 minutes. The startup time for new instances depends on your code, but for Node.js instances it should not be long.
Generally speaking it is easier to run an app on App Engine than Compute Engine, but if you use a single instance and don't change code often the difference is negligible.
App Engine has a generous free quota. You may end up paying nothing until the usage gets over a certain threshold.
You can run some diagnostic tools on your existing server, but even then you will get an approximation - a server with a different combination of resources sitting on a different network may use resources differently. You may be able to get a rather accurate estimate of memory usage, though.
If this is a small app with not too many users, even a small instance should be able to handle it. There is no harm in trying - start with the smallest instance, test, go to the next instance up if tests fail. Your key concern should be to have enough memory to handle a small number of requests.
As for the number of requests your server can handle, you can configure automatic scaling. It is a default option in App Engine and can be enabled for flexible runtime. Then you can have the smallest instance (i.e. your server does not crash due to the lack of memory) running, and another instance will be added if and when that small instance is not enough.
Well, after over a month I figure I might as well answer this myself.
What I ended up doing was creating a basic instance on Computer Engine (the micro. Smallest one available) and letting it just sit there for a few weeks. I looked back at the data to see what some good baselines were and took note.
Then I took my server code and ran it on the server. I left if there for a few days, changed it, updated it, etc. Just tried to simulate the things I would be doing. Sent messages on my client app (that's what this server is doing after all is said and done) and I let this go on for a few more weeks.
The rest is history. I looked at the baseline then looked at my new memory, CPU, network and disk usage and there we go. Good to go. My free trial still isn't even over so it was a free experiment.
The good news is that my server is more 'lightweight' than I thought.

On-Screen Keyboard hide and run within excel instance to use functionality

To give a brief backstory to bring things up to my current position / reason for my question:
I originally wanted to use sendkeys to send keyboard presses to a Citrix Xenapp Remote Terminal Application (VT320 Emulator).
This does not work.
After some investigation it became apparent that this has been a reasonably common issue.
I eventually found a work-around that involved opening the windows 'On-Screen Keyboard' application and sending mouseclicks using VBA to the OSK app itself. The key transmissions would be successfully received in the remote terminal application.
This solution is a rather awkward and not very practical solution as it relies on many factors e.g. screen resolution, co-ordinates / current position of the OSK etc.
With the above in mind, I am looking to achieve a more full proof method and here's my thoughts:
Rather than using simulated mouseclicks I would ideally like to be able to either 'embed' the OSK app into the excel instance and reference each key
or hide the app and find a way to make the application receive the VBA keys requested.
I'm aware that Sendkeys has its limitations so I have also tried using SendInput via a Keyb_Event and this also didn't work.
To any half experienced expert, I'm clearly a beginner so I'm suffering from a lack of knowledge here perhaps.
If anyone can point me in the right direction for solving this issue, I'd really appreciate it!
Many thanks.
EDIT
I've looked into this a little more and found this post:
Finding the class name of the On-Screen Keyboard?
Which would suggest that if I know the class of the on screen keyboard, I could use its commands within excel VBA?
I did try to use the code within the question but couldn't get it to work.
So hopefully my question is a little easier to answer?
Can I use the class name of the on-screen keyboard app / declare an API function that will allow me to send simulated key functions as if it's the OSK app being clicked by the mouse?
Hopefully someone can help!!
Trying to automate apps locally can be quite fiddly. Doing it through a Citrix HDX connection is just painful.
Do you have any say over the Citrix environment? If so I'd try writing an automation app that actually runs on the Citrix server in the same session as the published app you're trying to automate. This has the advantage that you're effectively automating a local app which would make life easier.
Depending on how your automation works you may need to communicate between your automation app running in the Citrix session and your client. You could use WCF to bridge the two together.
So that's how I would try and do, as regarding your specific question I've provided some thoughts below...
OSK automation thoughts
I've done some limited automation of the OSK. There are actually two OSKs if you're using Win8. Osk.exe is the old one which has been around a while. TabTip.exe is the new Win8 specific OSK.
One problem to keep in mind is that both of these processes run as high integrity processes which means normal (medium) integrity processes have very limited abilities to automate them. So while I could automate some stuff, many messages would just get ignored. So this maybe why you are finding the OSK is not responding like you expect.
You can work around this by running your automation app as a high integrity process, but this generally means you need local admin (or local system) privilege to start the high integrity process. I never looked into the specifics of how you create high integrity processes. I know there's a command line tool you can use to force a process to run at a certain level (icacls.exe), e.g.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb625960.aspx
I imagine there would be APIs to do this as well.

google analytics a/b testing with 2 site instances.

I am getting ready to release a new web site in the coming weeks, and would like the ability to run multivariate or a/b tests between two version of the site.
The site is hosted on azure, and I am using the Service Gateway to split traffic between the instances of the site, both of which are deployed from Visual Studio Online. One from the main branch and the other from an "experimental" branch.
Can I configure Google analytics to assist me in tracking the success of my tests. From what I have read Google analytics seems to focus on multiple versions of a page within the same site for running its experiments.
I have though of perhaps using 2 separate tracking codes, but my customers are not overly technically savvy, so I would like to keep things as simple as possible. I have also considered collecting my own metrics inside the application, but I would prefer to use an existing tool as I don't really have the time to implement something like that.
can this be done? are there better options? is there a good nugget package that might fulfil my needs? any advice welcome.
I'd suggest setting a custom dimension that tells you which version of the site the user is on. Then in the reports you can segment and compare the data.

Microsoft CRM 2011 On Demand Development and Test Environments

Does anyone have recommendations on the best way to set up development and testing environments for Microsoft CRM 2011 On Demand?
The recommendations I have seen so far include:
Paying for another account with only one user
Creating a VM
Going with a partner hosted environment
You will need to be a little more specific. What's wrong with the 3 you have listed? Is it cost, it is the time to configure?
That being said, what I do is sign up for the free 30 day trial.
First, sign up for a new Windows Live account.
Second, click here to sign up for the 30 day account.
Third, I always write down the login & url because I always forget them.
I'll have anywhere from 1 - 5 of these running at once.
The main benefit is the control this gives me. Since you can't access the SQL server directly with On Demand, it forces you to make your configurations & customizations the correct way.
Your other option is to setup a VM environment and create a new instance every time you need a clean setup. This is not my preferred option since you need good hardware to run the environment (otherwise the performance penalty is huge)

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